AWS complements its large ecosystem of solutions and partners with a deep focus on customer experience
SANTA CLARA, California, July 22, 2020 — Based on its recent analysis of global automotive cloud services platforms for the mobility industry, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) with the 2020 Global Company of the Year Award. AWS has cemented its leadership in cloud by delivering innovative solutions to automotive companies for unique connected, autonomous, shared, and electric (CASE) use cases. It also offers unparalleled support through dedicated account managers, solution architects, and a partner community that can deliver round-the-clock services at scale.
AWS offers over 175 fully featured services from the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platfrom from 76 Availability Zones (AZs) within 24 geographic regions. The company boasts a more extensive set of CASE-related cloud services, such as AWS IoT, AWS Outposts, and AWS Wavelength, than what is available from other competitors. AWS offers broad and deep capabilities, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), high-performance computing, purpose-built databases, and data analytics. These capabilities reinforce high performance, tight security, continuous innovation, and the largest customer and partner community in the world.
“AWS stands out with its industry-best scalability, elasticity, innovation, cost savings, and global reach. More importantly, it creates clear value by focusing on its clients and then co-locating, co-developing, and co-investing with them through a highly distinct engagement model,” said Niranjan Manohar, Research Director at Frost & Sullivan. “The company places direct emphasis on interoperability to connect its platform to the broader ecosystem of Amazon’s offerings, such as its supply chain or Alexa. By maintaining this level of interconnectivity, AWS can provide a rich, differentiated experience for its customer base.”
Further demonstrating its leadership, AWS supports the entire automotive value chain, including auto-tech start-ups, Tier I suppliers, mobility service providers, fleet providers, and OEMs. Its partner-centric strategy supports several purpose-built, connected car, and autonomous third-party platforms. Besides CASE offerings, AWS specializes in product innovation, connected mobility, digital customer engagement, manufacturing, and supply chains. Its solution architects are available to provide assessments and actively seek out opportunities to reduce operational costs and increase revenue.
“In 2019, AWS collaborated with Volkswagen to power Volkswagen’s Industrial Cloud. Ford Motor Company and Autonomic both began a multi-year agreement with AWS to expand the availability of cloud connectivity services and connected car application development services. Its expanding list of clients includes industry powerhouses like BMW Group, Kia, Honda, Mazda, Uber, Elektrobit, Cox Automotive, and Edmunds,” noted Manohar. “With its innovative solutions, customer-centric design, and strong overall performance, AWS is expected to continue dominating the market in the future.”
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents a Company of the Year award to the organization that demonstrates excellence in terms of growth strategy and implementation in its field. The award recognizes a high degree of innovation with products and technologies, and the resulting leadership in terms of customer value and market penetration.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.
About Frost & Sullivan
For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has become world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.
E-commerce tech company continues to invest in strengthening the executive team with appointment of newCFO,Michael Gordon, Deputy CFO, Laura Mineo and Chief People Officer, Lisa Craven
NEW YORK, July 13, 2020 —Rokt, the global leader in e-commerce marketing technology, today announced that their vision to make e-commerce smarter, faster and better is further strengthened with the appointment of former Greenlit Brands executive, Michael Gordon, Goldman-Sachs alumni, Laura Mineo and leadership executive, Lisa Craven in the roles of Chief Financial Officer, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, and Chief People Officer respectively. Gordon and Mineo will oversee the finance and legal operations of the business, working closely with CEO, Bruce Buchanan and the board of directors to manage the continuing acceleration of global growth. Craven will oversee people operations, learning & development and recruitment, signaling Rokt’s ongoing commitment to investment in its 225+ group of employees.
Rokt welcomes former Greenlit Brands executive, Michael Gordon, Goldman-Sachs alumni, Laura Mineo and leadership executive, Lisa Craven in the roles of Chief Financial Officer, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, and Chief People Officer respectively.
Gordon, who was previously Group CFO and MD of Group Services for Greenlit Brands Pty Limited in Australia & New Zealand, was instrumental in guiding the business from a turnover of USD$170m to a USD$1.65 billion vertically integrated retailer including the brands Freedom, Snooze, Fantastic, Plush, OMF, Best & Less and Harris Scarfe.
Mineo joins the Rokt team from Goldman Sachs in New York, where she most recently served as Executive Director, Firmwide Strategy. Mineo brings invaluable experience across mergers and acquisitions and capital markets across multiple industries and geographies. Mineo will take on the role of SVP Strategy in addition to her role as Deputy CFO.
Craven, who was previously consulting for Rokt, has an extensive career in leadership development, organizational design, people and culture initiatives, diversity & inclusion and human resources. Previously Global Chief People Officer at Sizmek, Craven has also served as a lecturer at Macquarie University, Janice Newman Institute and Drew University. Craven brings experience leading large-scale global teams in organizational effectiveness, and will use this to help drive a culture that attracts, and retains the best, and brightest talent.
“We are delighted to welcome Michael, Laura and Lisa to the Rokt executive team” said Rokt CEO, Bruce Buchanan. “In Michael & Laura, we are incredibly lucky to have two individuals with such strong expertise and a deep understanding of financial operations join at a pivotal time for the company. As we now target the next growth arc from ARR$100m to $1b, Gordon and Mineo’s global experience and knowledge of both private and publicly listed businesses will enable us to double down on our preparedness for scalability and the financial events we will consider on our trajectory.
Buchanan continued, “As a people first organization, Lisa is one of our most pivotal hires. Her expertise in organizational effectiveness and leadership development will be crucial in further deepening our people first culture, and helping us scale as we grow our business and look to continue to accelerate our recruitment across the globe.
“Rokt has quickly cemented their position as the leading technology company in e-commerce marketing and is poised to have even more significant global impact through continued innovation in research and development.” said Gordon. “I am excited to be joining such an inspirational business and look forward to working alongside the executive team to help drive this company through to the next stage of growth.”
“In what has been such an unprecedented year, it’s exciting to see a company such as Rokt thriving and innovating to keep up with, and exceed their clients’ needs.” commented Mineo. “During times of agility, financial rigor and strategic direction is more important than ever. I’m excited to come on board and help take this company to new heights of success.”
“Having spent some time recently with Bruce, and the wider executive team at Rokt I was delighted at having the opportunity to join the team in a full time capacity.” added Craven. “Rokt has embraced the people first mentality, pushing forward initiatives to ensure their values and culture are at the heart of every decision they make. I look forward to coming on board to amplify Rokt’s already significant investment in its greatest asset – it’s people.”
Rokt, who recently closed US$48m in their Series C investment round, has transformed e-commerce in over 11 countries by identifying that when customers are buying online as a consumer or on behalf of a business, they increasingly expect more personalized and relevant experiences. Rokt’s proprietary technology, machine learning and AI makes e-commerce smarter, faster and better. By unlocking the hidden potential in every single Transaction Moment™, Rokt enables clients to stay ahead of their competition, and deliver a more relevant customer experience. Rokt currently solves complex e-commerce challenges for global clients including Live Nation, Staples, Groupon, GoDaddy, Expedia and Wells Fargo.
For more information on Rokt, please visit rokt.com.
For more information on the announcement, please contact press@rokt.com.
ABOUT ROKT
Rokt makes e-commerce smarter, faster and better. When customers are buying online, they increasingly expect more personalized and relevant experiences. Rokt uses real time data and decisioning to deliver the next best action for each person in each Transaction Moment™.
Founded in Sydney, Rokt now operates in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, The Netherlands, Spain and Japan. Our clients include Live Nation, Staples, Groupon, GoDaddy, Expedia, Wells Fargo, Vistaprint and HelloFresh.
Rokt unlocks the hidden potential in every single Transaction Moment™.
HONG KONG, July 9, 2020 — iClick Interactive Asia Group Limited ("iClick" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: ICLK), an independent online marketing and enterprise data solutions provider in China, today announced that it was listed as one of the "Top 10 Digital Marketing Solution Providers in APAC 2020" by CIO Advisor APAC for the second consecutive year recognizing excellence in delivering Digital Marketing solutions for the Asia-Pacific region. Earlier this year, the Company was also listed as one of the "Top 10 Ad Management Companies 2020" by CIO Advisor APAC.
Powered by cutting-edge technologies and over 930 million Chinese consumer datasets covering 98% of Internet users in China, iClick’s proprietary platform has earned a strong reputation for helping enterprises achieve robust sales growth. Among the cases cited by CIO Advisor APAC as especially outstanding was iClick’s recent cooperation with QiaQia Food, China’s largest producer of roasted seeds and nuts, to optimize its outbound and inbound marketing efforts via the WeChat mini-program platform. Leveraging iClick’s integrated Enterprise and Marketing Cloud Platform that provides full-stack marketing and consumer lifecycle solutions, QiaQia Food realized 180% growth in monthly GMV and average growth of 30% in the number of monthly paying users of its official WeChat mini-program for the twelve months ending May 2020.
"We are delighted to receive this accolade, our second award from CIO Advisor this year," said Jian "T.J." Tang, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of iClick Interactive. "Like QiaQia Food, many Chinese and international brands are striving to grow their businesses in the face of the COVID-19. To help them reach the right consumers, iClick’s solutions integrate extensive online and offline data to create an in-depth understanding and segmentation of customers. By leveraging various technologies, including deep learning, machine learning, predictive analytics, and real-time matching technologies to perform multi-dimensional data drill-downs and dynamic correlation analysis, iClick brings digital marketing solutions to the next level and empowers our clients to effectively target the right audiences with the right messages."
With COVID-19 accelerating the shift in consumer habits towards e-commerce, iClick’s market-leading online marketing solutions are helping more and more brands unlock tremendous retail opportunities in China’s ever-growing digital ad market which is expected to overtake the US as the world’s largest market in 2023.
About iClick Interactive Asia Group Limited
iClick Interactive Asia Group Limited (NASDAQ: ICLK) is an independent online marketing and enterprise data solutions provider that connects worldwide marketers with audiences in China. Built on cutting-edge technologies, iClick’s proprietary platform possesses omni-channel marketing capabilities and fulfils various marketing objectives in a data-driven and automated manner, helping both international and domestic marketers reach their target audiences in China. Headquartered in Hong Kong, iClick was established in 2009 and is currently operating in ten locations worldwide including Asia and Europe.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements, including those related to the Company’s business strategies, operations and financial performance. These statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Such statements are based upon management’s current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company’s control. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: the Company’s fluctuations in growth; its success in implementing its mobile and new retail strategies, including extending its solutions beyond its core online marketing business; its success in structuring a CRM & Marketing Cloud platform; relative percentage of its gross billing recognized as revenue under the gross and net models; its ability to retain existing clients or attract new ones; its ability to retain content distribution channels and negotiate favorable contractual terms; market competition, including from independent online marketing technology platforms as well as large and well-established internet companies; market acceptance of online marketing technology solutions and enterprise solutions; effectiveness of its algorithms and data engines; its ability to collect and use data from various sources; ability to integrate and realize synergies from acquisitions, investments or strategic partnership; fluctuations in foreign exchange rates; and general economic conditions in China and other jurisdictions where the Company operates; and the regulatory landscape in China and other jurisdictions where the Company operates. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company’s annual report on Form 20-F and other filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.
Lemnisk releases several significant platform enhancements including probabilistic user data stitching, AI-based recommendations for new business verticals and deeper app and multi-channel personalization capabilities
BANGALORE, India, July 8, 2020 — Lemnisk, the world’s first real-time cross-channel marketing automation system built on an intelligent and secure Customer Data Platform (CDP), today announced the general availability of key features and enhancements to its product offering.
Lemnisk’s platform has been further upgraded this year with various enhancements such as probabilistic user data stitching across adtech and martech and social data sources, AI-based product recommendations, support for retail and e-commerce verticals, as well as deeper app personalization capabilities.
All of these features along with the existing capabilities like Ramanujan, an AI engine to orchestrate single user journeys, are now also available on a new and intuitive user interface that’s winning praise from customers for its ease of use.
The company is committed to building products around the key needs of its customers – acquiring new customers, engaging at scale with existing customers, and driving better RoI from the existing marketing stack and initiatives.
“We have emerged as one of the leading CDP players in Asia and the Middle East. Right from tying up with the biggest bank in UAE to forming a solid relationship with a leading South East Asian insurance brand to signing up India’s largest private bank, we’ve had a very successful run in the market so far. This year, we were also recognized by Forrester Research as a Leading Real-Time Interaction Management (RTIM) provider in its ‘Now Tech: RTIM, Q2 2020’ report,” said Subra Krishnan, CEO, Lemnisk.
Earlier this year, Lemnisk also expanded its support for verticals outside Banking, Insurance, and Financial Services. Customers in Retail, E-Commerce, Travel and Hospitality, and other verticals can also sign up for their acclaimed and proven Customer Data Platform.
“Our goal in 2020 is to effectively use our platform in tackling COVID-19 and the post pandemic digital imperative for our clients. With an AI-powered CDP as the bedrock, real-time marketing automation can transcend to a whole new level for marketers. Lemnisk’s tightly integrated and organic customer data platform can be a single tool that can effectively play the role of a first party DMP, Marketing Automation and Multi-Channel Personalization combined. This can bring significant simplification and cost efficiencies for marketers in the current environment,” added Subra.
About Lemnisk
Lemnisk Customer Data Platform delivers superior customer experiences that result in increased conversions, retention, and growth for enterprises. The key capabilities include:
Uniquely resolve a user in real-time across different data sources and channels
Create 1:1 personalized experiences for each user across multiple marketing channels
Orchestrate individual customer journeys on the right channels at the right time using a proprietary in-built AI engine called Ramanujan
Headquartered in Bangalore, Lemnisk has offices in Singapore, Dubai and Boston. Lemnisk is ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 certified.
Contact: Rahul Thomas Mathew Vice President – Marketing and Strategic Partnerships rahul.mathew@lemnisk.co +91-70191-82094
The recognitions highlight Tata Communications’ unmatched service delivery in India
MUMBAI, India, July 7, 2020 — Tata Communications, a digital ecosystem enabler, received top honors at Frost & Sullivan’s 2020 India ICT Awards, with eight wins in the ‘Company of the Year‘ category. All the awards were for excellence in service provision, underlining the company’s dominance in the Indian service provider market.
Applauding Tata Communications’ feat, Benoy CS, Vice President, Digital Transformation Practice, Frost & Sullivan, said, “Tata Communications’ services are aligned with industry best practices and address vertical-specific needs. It is an ideal example of a service provider that has the best-in-class people, processes and technologies to offer customer-focused solutions and services.”
In its 19th edition, the 2020 India ICT Awards celebrated the achievements of the IT industry’s best innovators, disruptors and leaders. The event honored industry professionals and corporates that created breakthrough business models and strategies through the innovative use of transformative technologies.
“We are thrilled that our continued focus on delivering superior customer experiences has resulted in another year of wins at the prestigious Frost & Sullivan’s 2020 India ICT Awards,” said Sumeet Walia, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Tata Communications. “To have won eight awards, especially the ‘Enterprise Data Service Provider of the Year’ for the eleventh time, is a strong validation of our efforts and expertise. The economic disruption triggered by the pandemic has resulted in an accelerated shift towards a digital-first world, creating an essential need for every industry to align to the new models of working. Our large suite of solutions, services and partnerships have helped unlock infinite possibilities to enable a seamless digital transition for our customers. These awards are a testament to the customers’ confidence in us as their trusted advisor. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our customers and enabling secure connected digital experiences for them.”
Accolades Won by Tata Communications at Frost & Sullivan’s 2020 India ICT Awards:
Enterprise Data Service Provider of the Year
Tata Communications has demonstrated tremendous innovation in product launches and strategies along with strong service delivery and support. It has enhanced the IZO cloud enablement platform, which integrates IZO Internet WAN with Global MPLS VPN, to form IZO Hybrid WAN. This is fully linked to its security services, such as DDoS mitigation, virtual proxy secure web gateway and Unified Threat Management. The company’s unique IZO SD-WAN service is available in 150+ countries globally and is continuously gaining traction among Indian enterprises.
Tata Communications follows a multi-pronged strategy and has the vision to enable faster service delivery through automation and self-servicing/provisioning capabilities implemented through APIs and virtual platforms. Furthermore, it aims to enable automation and virtualisation to expedite customers’ business transformation journeys.
Enterprise Telecom Service Provider of the Year – Large Enterprise Segment
Bolstered by its global network infrastructure and leadership in emerging markets, Tata Communications is continuously developing its service portfolio to include new technologies and innovations that simplify their enterprise customers’ operations and help promote a competitive enterprise telecoms services business.
The company has a vast portfolio of solutions and services aligned to the needs of large enterprise customers. Its focus on staying agile and delivering superior customer experiences has helped it position itself as a digital ecosystem enabler. Its international network coverage and partnerships help it serve Indian companies with a global footprint and global companies with India presence.
Managed Multi Cloud Service Provider of the Year
Tata Communications has developed an integrated value proposition by combining its managed service prowess with multi-cloud capabilities. This is helping it tap newer opportunities in the emerging multi-cloud space.
Its broad multi cloud portfolio enables digital transformation for enterprises by bringing together all enterprise workloads on a single pane, yet giving each workload a choice of platforms to run on multiple models such as public clouds, managed hosting, private cloud and cloud container services. It helps the organisations balance investments in on-premise private cloud technologies with effective utilisation of off-premise public cloud services to achieve an optimised total cost of ownership (TCO).
SDWAN Service Provider of the Year
Tata Communications has been the frontrunner for efficiently leveraging and building innovative solutions using cutting-edge technologies such as Software Defined Networking/ Network-Function Virtualization and IoT. It has exhibited exceptional go-to-market strategies and service innovations by providing two different deployment models so customers can pick the one that best aligns with their SD-WAN deployment strategy.
Tata Communications has maintained its SD-WAN leadership in India on the back of its customised SD-WAN solution suite, continuous addition of innovative features in SD-WAN service, strong R&D capabilities and collaborative business with customers.
Unified Communications Service Provider of the Year
India’s Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC) market is becoming increasingly cloud-oriented as more businesses are willing to shift to the hosted/cloud model as long as they have a strong service provider that can manage their UCC requirements end-to-end. Tata Communications has been a clear leader in identifying these changing preferences of Indian businesses and continues to build technology partnerships to provide best-in-class UCC experiences to its business customers.
Managed Security Service Provider of the Year – Telecom
As enterprises aim to build a 360-degree cyber security posture, the number of security tools within the IT ecosystem has increased at a rapid pace. Organisations are not only focused on perimeter security, but are extending the security elements beyond the enterprise network; notably to the cloud and mobile devices. They need service providers that have a broad range of capabilities to manage and monitor security concerns around these areas. Tata Communications has expanded its cyber security offerings in response to this and significantly improved its threat detection and response capabilities. It leverages next-generation technologies and security frameworks that are industry-compliant and dependable.
Cloud Interconnect Service Provider of the Year
A trendsetter in the cloud interconnect space in India, the company has a robust roadmap to further enhance its cloud interconnect offerings and improve customer experiences. It plans to develop expansive multi-cloud connectivity capabilities involving customer use cases such as distributed applications in multiple clouds. Additionally, Tata Communications is developing cost-effective approaches wherein a customer can connect to multiple cloud service providers through a single physical connection. This would be significantly more efficient than building multiple dedicated physical connections to different cloud service providers.
Tata Communications intends to integrate its managed security services capabilities with cloud interconnect services. Moreover, it hopes to increase its existing interconnect capacity with cloud providers to address the rising demand for bandwidth.
Video Managed Services Provider of the Year
As the video managed services segment continues evolving due to the rapid advancement of technologies, service providers are being challenged to address customer demand on-the-go to remain relevant. The video managed services segment has, as a result, undergone a significant transformation in terms of the introduction of customised solutions by various players. The declining infrastructure cost of cloud-solutions and the rising demand for a wider range of video solutions at low costs are key issues that need to be addressed.
Tata Communications provides managed video services to enterprises leveraging its flagship product, Video Connect, as a core service for live and file-based contribution and global distribution to broadcasters and aggregators. It has the largest dedicated fiber-based Video Connect managed service, which offers unprecedented reach, flexibility and reliability. With a focus on constant innovation, the company has become the managed service provider of choice for broadcasting solutions such as Live 4K, 8K, and 360-degree video.
About the Awards
Frost & Sullivan’s India ICT Awards contenders were judged on a variety of parameters including revenue, market share, product diversity, vertical and horizontal diversity, major customer acquisitions, the efficacy of the innovation process, product service, and positioning. The judging process involved in-depth primary interviews with various industry participants and secondary research conducted by Frost & Sullivan analysts. An elite panel of jury members comprising some of the most prominent CIOs/CTOs from the industry evaluated the compiled data and incorporated the end-user perspective. Frost & Sullivan then presented the awards to the companies that received the number one industry rank in each category.
About Frost & Sullivan
For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has become world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.
Tata Communications is a digital ecosystem enabler that powers today’s fast-growing digital economy.
The company enables the digital transformation of enterprises globally, including 300 of the Fortune 500 – unlocking opportunities for businesses by enabling borderless growth, boosting product innovation and customer experience, improving productivity and efficiency, building agility and managing risk.
With its solutions orientated approach and proven managed service capabilities and cutting-edge infrastructure, Tata Communications drives the next level of intelligence powered by cloud, mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), collaboration, security, and network services.
Tata Communications carries around 30% of the world’s internet routes and connects businesses to 60% of the world’s cloud giants and 4 out of 5 mobile subscribers.
The company’s capabilities are underpinned by its global network, the world’s largest wholly owned subsea fibre backbone and a Tier-1 IP network with connectivity to more than 200 countries and territories.
Tata Communications Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India.
HONG KONG, July 7, 2020 — Happy customers drive sales. Recent research finds that customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience (CX). As customers are no longer only comparing products and prices, CX is the key differentiator that businesses are competing on. But investing in the right software to improve CX isn’t easy when people take into account customer interactions across various channels and touchpoints. 96% of people think businesses need to improve communication.[1] Many brands are failing or falling behind due to poor touch point experiences, and it’s clear that a lot of desperate situations could have been avoided with better CX and communication tools.
maaiiconnect provides businesses with an all-in-one solution for customer engagement and internal collaboration. By choosing the right solutions and investing in the right tool, a business can strive for digital maturity and thrive for decades to come.
What should businesses consider? Start asking some hard questions to get to the bottom of the current situation.
1. What do customers need? What channels are they using, now and in the future? 2. Is there a need for external or internal communication tools? Or both? 3. Is there old/ current data and conversations to migrate? 4. What data and analytics are needed? How can these reports support the business decision? 5. What tangible impact will it have on sales and customer experience? 6. Is it secure? Where is the data stored, and is there end-to-end encryption? 7. What is the timeline for implementation? When is it needed?
Identify and prioritise the must haves, and need nots. Make use of free plans and trials to experience the tools first-hand before committing. maaiiconnect Essentials Plan is a free package with all the web-based communication features needed to create powerful customer experiences.
Use live chat to curate intelligent customer experiences, globally Customer satisfaction rates for live chat interactions are 98%, higher than all other channels.[2] As a touchpoint for online customer service, shoppers value the instant connection and users can leverage the additional data to design stronger experiences.
But not all live chats are created equal! maaiiconnect is a customer engagement software that combines telecom and digital channels. With a unique dashboard and insights, businesses can easily access data to transform customer experiences through a live chat widget that includes live chat, web call, video call, SMS, virtual numbers, and international toll free numbers.
Combine traditional telecom channels with the latest digital features Check whether the solutions can be integrated with other software/ systems that the business uses, and which communication channels are available; such as web communication, traditional telecom, and social media. If the staff may work from home, cloud-based solutions typically can be used anywhere and on multiple devices for team collaboration and customer engagement.
65% of employees are not engaged at work due to confusing communication systems and processes.[3] Don’t create new bottlenecks by adding more layers, as consumers pay the price with slow response times and shift business to competitors.
Companies that communicate effectively can see sales increase by 20% with a 4.5x increase in staff retention,[4] proving a clear link between strong team collaboration channels and better customer experience. maaiiconnect enables stronger team collaboration via rich feature-set such as voice call, file sharing, group chat, screen sharing, video conferencing.
Look for a secure business communications tool with one dashboard Using a single dashboard that converges all the telecom and digital channels the customers use, along with team collaboration tools, is an effective foundation to begin improving customer experience.
With many businesses using multiple international toll free numbers, virtual numbers, social media accounts, video conference services, chat widgets, SMS solutions, etc., costs pile up and staff get stretched juggling everything. A unified omnichannel communication solution such as maaiiconnect is the future of business communications, keeping costs down with customisable packages, and an easy to use all-in-one dashboard. The platform is backed by a proprietary infrastructure that is 100% compliant with telco and international security standards in data encryption, compliance, backup, and authentication.
Don’t wait until it’s too late! Register now and try the maaiiconnect Essentials Plan free of charge to transform your customer experience.
[1] Project.co: Communications Statistics 2020 Report [2] Customer Think: How Live Chat Can Impact Your Customer Satisfaction [3] Gallup: 4 Factors Driving Record-High Employee Engagement in the US [4] Gallup: The Right Culture: Not Just About Employee Satisfaction
About maaiiconnect maaiiconnect provides businesses with an all-in-one solution for customer engagement and internal collaboration. Leveraging an innovative multi-dimensional convergence model, maaiiconnect seamlessly unifies telecom and digital communication channels, such as PSTN, VoIP, chat & instant messaging, video conference, and social networks. It is device-agnostic, empowering employees to be more productive, as well as providing companies a platform to deliver a suite of multimedia experience to their customers anytime, anywhere, on any device. Learn more at www.maaiiconnect.com.
Avaya’s solutions combine resources, insights, and knowledge from across the organization to deliver outstanding customer and employee experiences
SANTA CLARA, California, July 2, 2020 — Based on its recent analysis of the North American workforce engagement management (WEM) market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE:AVYA), a global leader in solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration, with the 2020 North American Growth Innovation Leadership Frost Radar Award. The Avaya OneCloud contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) portfolio provides customer and workforce engagement solutions supplemented by capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI)-infused bots, predictive routing, real-time sentiment analysis, and agent guidance. These capabilities connect all touch points across the customer journey including voice, video, chat, messaging, social, and screen.
Avaya
"Avaya’s capabilities can intelligently transition customer needs from self-service AI to human interaction and deliver a personalized journey across the entire organization, from front- to back-office, for superior CX," said Nancy Jamison, industry director. "Its developer tools and APIs allow in-house and partner developer communities to innovate and integrate applications. Some of its notable AI- and mobility-based products include Avaya Conversational Intelligence, Avaya Mobile Experience, Avaya Mobile Identity, and Avaya AI Routing."
Avaya’s flexible CCaaS options, supporting public, private, and hybrid deployment, enable customers to leverage the cloud model best suited to their business needs. The Avaya OneCloud CCaaS portfolio provides customer and workforce engagement solutions supplemented by capabilities such as AI-infused bots, predictive routing, and real-time sentiment analysis and agent guidance. Also, its OneCloud UCaaS solutions can function in all environments, as can Avaya Cloud Office. Frost & Sullivan recognizes Avaya as one of the few providers with a full line of devices and endpoints. It complements its continued R&D investment with technology partnerships, including majors such as Verint, Afiniti, Nuance, Google, Avaya’s A.I.Connect and DevConnect programs, to round out its full-stack of WEM and WEM-supporting products.
"In an evolving economy where experience is a differentiator for brands, we are honored to be recognized for our commitment to enhancing customer and employee experiences for our clients," said Anthony Bartolo, Avaya executive vice president and chief product officer. "Avaya continues it’s ongoing investment in customer-led innovation and expanding our ecosystem of technology partners that work with us to deliver a robust portfolio of customer engagement, workforce engagement management and workforce optimization solutions. This award helps highlight that in a sea of contact center providers, Avaya is far differentiated by our breadth of WEM solutions and experience, over anyone else in the field."
Avaya customers including Conduit Global, Florius and Canon Financial Services, among others, are driving improved engagement and business outcomes with WEM innovation. Strategically, Avaya combines solutions to bolster its core capabilities as part of the WEM portfolio. For example, for recruitment and onboarding, the Avaya Conversational Intelligence solution sends real-time sentiment and intent with context to the desktop to help new hires make informed decisions.
"Avaya’s WEM cloud delivery and subscription models are well-suited to both mid-market and large enterprises. Overall, it is set to lead the industry with a converged UC and contact center platform that can redefine WFO for unique CX and EX, even beyond contact centers," noted Jamison. "Strong partnerships and substantial investments in R&D have positioned Avaya for notable growth in 2020."
The Growth Innovation Leadership (GIL) best practice is bestowed upon companies that are market leaders that are at the forefront of innovation. These companies consolidate or grow their leadership position by continuously innovating and creating new products and solutions that serve the evolving needs of the customer base. These companies are also best positioned to expand the market by strategically broadening their product portfolio.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.
To get an in-depth look from Avaya at how to simplify, modernize, and automate customer journeys to build customer loyalty, click here.
About Frost & Sullivan
For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has become world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.
About Avaya Businesses are built on the experiences they provide, and everyday millions of those experiences are built by Avaya (NYSE: AVYA). For over one hundred years, we’ve enabled organizations around the globe to win – by creating intelligent communications experiences for customers and employees. Avaya builds open, converged and innovative solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration – in the cloud, on-premise or a hybrid of both. To grow your business, we’re committed to innovation, partnership, and a relentless focus on what’s next. We’re the technology company you trust to help you deliver Experiences that Matter. Visit us at http://www.avaya.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This document contains certain "forward-looking statements." All statements other than statements of historical fact are "forward-looking" statements for purposes of the U.S. federal and state securities laws. These statements may be identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "our vision," "plan," "potential," "preliminary," "predict," "should," "will," or "would" or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While the Company believes these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond its control. The factors are discussed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") available at www.sec.gov, and may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The Company cautions you that the list of important factors included in the Company’s SEC filings may not contain all of the material factors that are important to you. In addition, in light of these risks and uncertainties, the matters referred to in the forward-looking statements contained in this press release may not in fact occur. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.
As part of AI/ML advancement in Singapore, Kantar was granted a patent in the Quantum Machine Learning field in Singapore.
Kantar Brand Growth Lab continues experimenting in the Quantum Machine Learning field.
SINGAPORE, June 22, 2020 — Kantar, the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company, announced today the first patent on Quantum Machine Learning as part of AI/ML advancement in Singapore. With the continuous support and partnership of Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), Kantar established its Brand Growth Lab in Singapore in 2018 to develop AI/ML solutions. The Lab, an advanced analytics hub, is dedicated to discovering new ways to leverage big data to drive strategic decision-making for business.
Kantar awarded patent in the Quantum AI field
On January 2nd of this year, Kantar was granted its first patent by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore for a method of optimising AI/ML predictions from a classical data feed with a hybrid simulator generated from classical and quantum model structures. Some of the other organizations with a patented invention in the Quantum technology field in Singapore are Oxford University Innovation, D-Wave, IBM and Google.
“Quantum technology will revolutionize Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. This patent indicates our commitment to lead in this field. We are proud to have been awarded this patent as it demonstrates our advancement in the field of data science,” commented Hernan Sanchez, Managing Director, Kantar Brand Growth Lab.
Kantar Brand Growth Lab experiments in the Quantum Machine Learning field
In collaboration with Professor Angelakis, Principal Investigator and the leader of the Quantum Simulation and Computation Group at the National University of Singapore’s Centre of Quantum Technologies, two quantum experiments using real consumer behavioral data from Kantar’s panels were conducted during the last 6 months.
Experiment 1: Customer segmentation using quantum machine learning
In the first experiment, the goal was to develop quantum-inspired machine learning segmentation algorithm that exploits the concept of quantum interference and work in the classical hardware to improve the results of the current machine learning approach. Comparing the traditional technique with a quantum and a quantum genetic algorithm developed for this experiment, we observed that the Quantum versions showed better results.
Experiment 2: Customer Segmentation based on Media consumption patterns using an IBM quantum computer
The objective of this experiment was to establish the feasibility of using a quantum computer to address a real-life segmentation problem. The quantum algorithm was run using 2 qubits on the IBM’s 5-qubit quantum computer. 4 relevant consumer segments were identified. Next steps in our research will be about proving the superiority of the quantum approach and explore the potential of more advanced quantum hardware.
“In the field of Data Science, it is always crucial to be aware of the new techniques and methodologies in order to stay relevant and have that competitive edge. By venturing into Quantum field early and experimenting with different Quantum machine learning techniques, we hope to have an early mover advantage that could bring great business value in the long run,” commented Shilpa Jain, Principal Data Scientist, Kantar Brand Growth Lab.
“With the support of EDB, the Lab keeps on researching and developing advanced analytics solutions to help institutions and corporations maximize the productivity of their efforts. The post COVID-19 economy requires a new level of innovation and in today’s data-driven economy, AI will play a key role,” added Yee Mei Chan, co-managing director of the Kantar Brand Growth Lab.
About Kantar
Kantar is the world’s leading evidence-based insights and consulting company. We have a complete, unique and rounded understanding of how people think, feel and act; globally and locally in over 90 markets. By combining the deep expertise of our people, our data resources and benchmarks, our innovative analytics and technology, we help our clients understand people and inspire growth.
Further information about Kantar can be found at www.kantar.com
BEIJING, June 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Bitauto Holdings Limited (“Bitauto” or the “Company”) (NYSE: BITA), a leading provider of internet content & marketing services, and transaction services for China’s automotive industry, today announced that it has entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) with Yiche Holding Limited (“Parent”), and Yiche Mergersub Limited, a wholly owned Subsidiary of Parent, pursuant to which the Company will be acquired by an investor consortium led by Morespark Limited, an affiliate of Tencent Holdings Limited (“Tencent“) and Hammer Capital Opportunities Fund L.P. (acting through its general partner Hammer Capital Opportunities General Partner, “Hammer Capital”) in an all-cash transaction that values the Company’s equity at approximately US$1.1 billion (the “Merger”).
Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, at the effective time of the Merger (the “Effective Time”), each ordinary share of the Company (each, a “Share”) issued and outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time will be cancelled and cease to exist in exchange for the right to receive US$16 in cash without interest, and each outstanding American depositary share of the Company (each, an “ADS,” representing one Share) will be cancelled in exchange for the right to receive US$16 in cash without interest, except for (a) certain Shares (including Shares represented by ADSs) owned by affiliates of Tencent, an affiliate of JD.com, Inc., and Mr. Bin Li, chairman of the board of directors of the Company (the “Board”), which will be rolled over in the transaction , (b) Shares (including ADSs represented by Shares) owned by Parent, Merger Sub, the company or any of their respective subsidiaries, (c) Shares (including ADSs represented by Shares) held by the ADS depositary and reserved for issuance, settlement and allocation upon exercise or vesting of Company’s options and/or restricted share unit awards, and (d) Shares held by shareholders who have validly exercised and not effectively withdrawn or lost their rights to dissent from the merger pursuant to Section 238 of the Companies Law of the Cayman Islands, which will be cancelled and cease to exist in exchange for the right to receive the payment of fair value of those dissenting shares in accordance with Section 238 of the Companies Law of the Cayman Islands.
The merger consideration represents a premium of 16.4% to the closing price of the Company’s ADSs on September 12, 2019, the last trading day prior to the Company’s announcement of its receipt of the “going-private” proposal, and a premium of 35.1% to the average closing price of the Company’s ADSs during the 30 trading days prior to its receipt of the “going-private” proposal.
The investor consortium includes Tencent and Hammer Capital. The consortium intends to fund the Merger with a combination of rollover equity and cash, and has delivered copies of executed equity commitment letters to the Company.
The Board, acting upon the unanimous recommendation of a committee of independent directors established by the Board (the “Special Committee”), approved the Merger Agreement and the Merger and resolved to recommend that the Company’s shareholders vote to authorize and approve the Merger Agreement and the Merger. The Special Committee negotiated the terms of the Merger Agreement with the assistance of its financial and legal advisors.
The Merger is currently expected to close in the second half of 2020 and is subject to customary closing conditions including the approval of the Merger Agreement by an affirmative vote of holders of Shares representing at least two-thirds of the voting power of the Shares present and voting in person or by proxy at a meeting of the Company’s shareholders. Shareholders affiliated with Tencent, JD.com, Inc., Mr. Bin Li, and Cox Automotive Global Investment, Inc. have each agreed to vote all of the Shares and ADSs they beneficially own, which represent approximately 55.3% of the voting rights attached to the outstanding Shares as of the date of the Merger Agreement, in favor of the authorization and approval of the Merger Agreement and the Merger. If completed, the Merger will result in the Company becoming a privately held company, and its ADSs will no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Company will prepare and file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a Schedule 13E-3 transaction statement, which will include a proxy statement of the Company. The Schedule 13E-3 will include a description of the Merger Agreement and contain other important information about the Merger, the Company and the other participants in the Merger.
Duff & Phelps, LLC and Duff & Phelps Securities, LLC are serving as financial advisor to the Special Committee. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is serving as U.S. legal counsel to the Special Committee.
BofA Securities is serving as financial advisor to the investor consortium. Latham & Watkins LLP and Kirkland and Ellis are serving as U.S. legal counsel and Hong Kong legal counsel to the investor consortium, respectively.
Additional Information about the Merger
The Company will furnish to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) a current report on Form 6-K regarding the Merger, which will include as an exhibit thereto the Merger Agreement. All parties desiring details regarding the Merger are urged to review these documents, which will be available at the SEC’s website (http://www.sec.gov).
In connection with the Merger, the Company will prepare and mail a proxy statement to its shareholders. In addition, certain participants in the Merger will prepare and mail to the Company’s shareholders a Schedule 13E-3 transaction statement that will include the proxy statement. These documents will be filed with or furnished to the SEC. INVESTORS AND SHAREHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY THESE MATERIALS AND OTHER MATERIALS FILED WITH OR FURNISHED TO THE SEC WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, AS THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPANY, THE MERGER AND RELATED MATTERS. In addition to receiving the proxy statement and Schedule 13E-3 transaction statement by mail, shareholders also will be able to obtain these documents, as well as other filings containing information about the Company, the Merger and related matters, without charge, from the SEC’s website (http://www.sec.gov) or at the SEC’s public reference room at 100 F Street, NE, Room 1580, Washington, D.C. 20549.
The Company and certain of its directors, executive officers and other members of management and employees may, under SEC rules, be deemed to be “participants” in the solicitation of proxies from the Company’s shareholders with respect to the Merger. Information regarding the persons who may be considered “participants” in the solicitation of proxies will be set forth in the proxy statement and Schedule 13E-3 transaction statement relating to the Merger when it is filed with the SEC. Additional information regarding the interests of such potential participants will be included in the proxy statement and Schedule 13E-3 transaction statement and the other relevant documents filed with the SEC when they become available.
This announcement is neither a solicitation of a proxy, an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities and it is not a substitute for any proxy statement or other filings that may be made with the SEC should the Merger proceed.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains statements that express the Company’s current opinions, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or projections regarding future events or future results and therefore are, or may be deemed to be, “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”). These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “if,” “will,” “expected” and similar statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include: uncertainties as to how the Company’s shareholders will vote at the meeting of shareholders; the possibility that competing offers will be made; the possibility that financing may not be available; the possibility that various closing conditions for the transaction may not be satisfied or waived; and other risks and uncertainties discussed in documents filed with the SEC by the Company, as well as the Schedule 13E-3 transaction statement and the proxy statement to be filed by the Company. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s expectations as of the date of this press release. You should not rely upon these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.
About Bitauto
Bitauto Holdings Limited (NYSE: BITA) is a leading provider of internet content & marketing services, and transaction services for China’s automotive industry. Bitauto’s business consists of three segments: advertising and subscription business, transaction services business and digital marketing solutions business.
Bitauto’s advertising and subscription business provides a variety of advertising services to automakers through the bitauto.com website and corresponding mobile apps which provide consumers with up-to-date automobile pricing and promotional information, specifications, reviews and consumer feedback. Bitauto also provides transaction-focused online advertisements and services for promotional activities to its business partners, including automakers, automobile dealers, auto finance partners and insurance companies. Bitauto offers subscription services via its SaaS platform, which provides web-based and mobile-based integrated digital marketing solutions to new car automobile dealers in China. The SaaS platform enables automobile dealer subscribers to create their own online showrooms, list pricing and promotional information, provide automobile dealer contact information, place advertisements and manage customer relationships to help them reach a broad set of purchase-minded customers and effectively market their automobiles to consumers online.
Bitauto’s transaction services business is primarily conducted by its controlled subsidiary, Yixin Group Limited (SEHK: 2858), a leading online automobile finance transaction platform in China, which provides transaction platform services as well as self-operated financing services.
Bitauto’s digital marketing solutions business provides automakers with one-stop digital marketing solutions, including website creation and maintenance, online public relations, online marketing campaigns, advertising agent services, big data applications and digital image creation.
For more information, please visit ir.bitauto.com.
For investor and media inquiries, please contact:
Suki Li Bitauto Holdings Limited Phone: +86-10-6849-2145 ir@bitauto.com
BEIJING, June 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — A new report by Miaozhen Systems, China’s leading omni measurement and business intelligence analytics solutions provider, has found that 31.9% of all online advertising traffic in China was invalid in 2019, costing the China brand marketing industry an estimated 28 billion RMB.
The report, “China Digital Advertising Invalid Traffic Report in 2019”, is the first of its kind to examine invalid traffic in new advertising formats and media. In addition to PC and mobile ads, this report analyzed the state of invalid data in NEW TV ads, offline and outdoor ads, online consumer leads, social media ads, KOL marketing, and more. With data collected from 65,000 campaigns by 2,000 brands across 1,200 platforms, it is the most accurate and comprehensive report on this subject to date.
Key findings for 2019 are summarized below:
Invalid traffic (IVT) made up 31.9% of all digital advertising traffic in China, up 1.7pp from 2018;
39.9% of vertical media traffic was invalid; IT verticals had the highest IVT rate at 49%, up 14pp from 2018;
Across industries, internet and communications saw the greatest IVT increase (up 6.3pp from 2018) and suffered the highest IVT rate;
10% of NEW TV ad traffic was invalid; agencies contributed the most invalid exposure;
26% of all online consumer sales leads were invalid, with major implications for auto and other industries that rely on online lead collection;
4.2% of outdoor advertising was invalid or not displayed;
48% of social media advertising traffic was invalid. On average, 57.5% of KOL fans were invalid, with baby & mom KOLs having the highest rate of invalid fans (65.1%).
Since 2013, Miaozhen has been dedicated to the healthy development of the China digital marketing ecosystem. Besides contributing to national digital marketing industry standards, Miaozhen offers innovative, cutting-edge IVT filtration and influencer evaluation solutions to help make the industry more transparent and trustworthy. Clients who used Miaozhen’s intelligent IVT filtration solution SmartVerify had an average IVT rate of 4.7%, far lower than the 2019 average of 31.9%, and saved an estimated total of 4.5 billion RMB that would have been lost to invalid traffic.
To learn more about Miaozhen Systems, please visit www.miaozhen.com.
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